I'm No Superman
by TCBN
Summary: Kenny fancies Rachel(oc). Rachel believes Kenny is not to be trusted, judging by rumours everyone tells her. To stop this, Kenny dresses as Mysterion to try and acquaint her. Rachel, Kenny and Kyle become science partners and Kenny gets pissed off, proving right all the rumours Rachel was told. The hero doesn't always get the girl
1. Chapter 1

A bike dangled off the side of a busy six-lane bridge. At the bottom was a thick layer of powdery snow where a figure sat, hugging their arm in agony. Someone had raced over after seeing someone loose traction on the icy road and topple over the bridge side, bike careening in the other direction. Kylecringed, wrist screaming as it was snow shattered into a million pieces after what had happened earlier.

"Are you alright?" someone his height asked, wearing white underpants over a purple onzie. Kylecould do nothing but nurse his broken wrist and stifle laughter at what he was wearing despite his broken wrist. Sam's voice was considerably higher than usual because his wrist was crunching every time he breathed and the pain made him squirm and speak higher than usual. Not that his voice was that gruff to begin with.

"What the hell" Kyle croaked, rivets of pain shooting up his arm, "are you wearing?"

"What's up with your voice?" the purple guy said, ignoring Sam's remark

"What?" Kyle stared

"Are you alright, Miss?" the gruff voiced purple man asked, kneeling with him

"I'm fine. I'm a dude, by the way" Kyle lifted an eyebrow

"Would you like me to carry you to the h- oh, you're a _dude_!?" the guy did a double take, looking as if he wasted his time

"OF COURSE I AM A FUCKING DUDE!" Kyle screamed, shaking his wrist in annoyance ignoring the broken crunching it made "What the hell difference does that make!?"

"Nuh- I thought you were someone else" he backed off awkwardly

"You are a sexist weirdo!" Kyle screamed at the figure, "only saving those who are damsels in distress!"

"I'm not sexist! I just thought you were a _girl_ I knew" he answered, "Let's try again. I'm Mysterion. Who are you?"

"Kyle" he hugged his wrist. The pain was getting worse but he didn't want to show it especially in front of this person.

"By the way, sexism just means-" Mysterion started to explain

"I know precisely what it means" Kyle stood up and walked away, towards the hospital, "I don't really know who you are but I have to go. Bye"

"Someone else is in need of my help!" Mysterion boasted, "I try to make sure the night is safe"

"If I was a girl what would you have done?" Kyle asked before turning the corner

"Carried you to hospital" Mysterion leapt back up onto the bridge and vanished, That was something even Stan would not be able to achieve. Shrugging in annoyance and crouching in agony, Kyle made for the hospital to have his wrist re-set and forgot all about what happened that night. Elsewhere, Mysterion made for the streets, muttering about the stereotypes of heroism. Cartman was teasing someone, waving around thick-framed turtle shell glasses that glinted in the moonlight as he waved it around mockingly.

"You are such a nerd!" Cartman laughed

"Give that back!" the figure pleaded

Cartman shook his head and laughed and jumped as Mysterion swiped them from his grasp.

"Um" the figure turned as Mysterion gave the glasses back, "Thank you"

"That's fine" Mysterion shrugged, "Thought I would help"

"God you're such a weirdo" Cartman laughed, "even underpants toting guys go after you!"

"And who are you?" the girl asked, ignoring Cartman

"Mysterion… you?" he asked, knowing he had to start fresh if he was to succeed

"Rachel" she looked down

Cartman shrugged and walked away, not realizing who Mysterion was. Everyone had forgotten who Mysterion was. Kenny thought that was a good thing.

"Thank you, again" Rachel blinked, "He's kinda a dick to everyone. Or, for the last week that I've known him"

"Yeah he tends to do that" Mysterion shrugged, "I know of fatboy"

"Okay… well. Uh.. I'm heading home. Bye" Rachel turned to leave

Mysterion wandered home and sat at the living room table, pondering about what happened that afternoon. Stan had told Kenny that he had such a bad reputation with girls that there was no way in this Earth that he would ever be able to redeem himself. Kenny wanted to prove himself wrong. The upside was that just about everyone had forgotten about who the hell Mysterion was and what he had looked like. This was going to be the biggest mental mission he had ever set upon himself. What he didn't know, was that Kyle had already seen Mysterion. And that was a risk he was willing to take.


	2. Chapter 2

Kenny got up and dressed and made for the school bus stop and stayed as his quiet self as he waited for the bus. The same girl was at the back of the bus when he got on. Sitting beside her, Kenny ignored Kyle's ever SO discrete eye roll.

"Hi" Kenny smiled, thinking up a reason to talk to her, "Uh, did you remember to do that maths homework? I totally forgot"

"Yeah" Rachel didn't look in his direction, fiddling with her notebook. Fuck. Bebe must have or someone like Wendy must have told Rachel something nasty about him. Now was time to defy this.

"I hope they don't serve something disgusting at the cafeteria" Kenny tried

"No" Rachel shrugged, staring at the back of Tweek's head before her. She was clearly not up for conversation.

"Gum?" Kenny offered her a piece from his pocket

"No thanks" Rachel smiled a thin smile and opened her notebook, looking like she was reading her essay on the gulf war with great interest. Kenny, giving up on all forms of contact sighed and looked up to see Wendy flip him off from the front of the bus.

"Why do you not want to talk to me?" Kenny asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

"Um" Rachel closed her notebook and looked at him, "I'm… just shy"

"Oh.. right" Kenny shrugged, not sure why she was coming off as secretive

Rachel turned to face Kyle on the other side of her sporting a wrist cast.

"Hey, what happened there?" Rachel asked

"Fell off a bridge. Stupid bike" the red headed boy shrugged

"Huh" Rachel did a double take, "Must have hurt"

"There's actually a funny story to go with it" he replied and was interrupted when the bus driver screamed for everyone to get off and go to school.

After spending lunchtime jacking off in the guys bathrooms to the beat of _Somebody to love _on his iPod Nano, he left for science class, his favorite subject.

"I will have assigned you all into groups for a science project" teacher droned, oblivious to the collective groans that sounded from the room, "You must devise a science experiment, decide a hypothesis, working out, pictures, diagrams and research"

Kenny lifted his head and froze at the names surrounding his own on the blackboard. This was jackpot.

_Kyle_

_Kenny_

_Rachel_

Kenny laughed to himself as Cartman groaned loudly as Wendy banged her head on the table nearby after reading her name beside Cartman's. At least he was with Bebe.


	3. Chapter 3

Kyle was doing a rather funny looking victory dance after prodding a spoon in a glass of water and taking it out. He grinned with excitement that only people who got grade A's on their reports every year tended to get.

"What's that?" Kenny cringed

"Why do spoons look like they bend when submerged in water?" Kyle asked

"I don't know" Kenny shrugged as Kyle did it again with a ruler and wrote something down on paper

"It's the same exact reason why the floor of a pool looks shallower than it actually is!" Rachel egged Kenny, sitting beside Kyle

"I don't know and I don't care" Kenny admitted, "try think of something useful, like how much can you stretch rubber"

Rachel looked as if she missed the joke and Kyle just scoffed and flicked water on him in annoyance.

"Dude, we need to find variables, we can't just say hey look people, spoons bend! With WATER" Rachel shook her hands for dramatic effect

"Yeah, we're going to see how much we can 'bend' objects in water" Kyle said

"It's all the same" Rachel shrugged, "way too easy, we should do another experiment"

"Okay, what about" Kyle scratched his chin

"Mass can vary the falling velocity of objects?" Kenny offered, "or how come coke explodes when-"

"Peppermints are put in the coke can!" Rachel whooped, jumping up

"Actually, its _Mentos_" Kenny corrected

"Yeah, it's a peppermint. We need to find out WHY, if it does, it only happens with Mentos" Rachel jeered and jumped around, "We're freaking-"

"NERDS!" Kenny howled, ignoring the death stare that the duo gave him, "_awesome_ nerds though"

Rachel sighed, "I need a break. I'll buy mints on the way out"

"Okay, see ya later" Kyle waved as she left the library

"I'll go help her out" Kenny ran after her, ignoring Kyle's pen clatter on the desk as a sign of utter annoyance.

"Rachel, wait up" Kenny walked up to Rachel, hands in pockets, "I'm sorry about how I come off. For some reason I just come off as…. I dunno"

"It's fine" Rachel turned to him, "I'm just creeped out that you're so adamant to talk to me and everything"

"Sorry, I'll cool off on that part" Kenny stepped back as a way of saying sorry, "I just love friends. And… I tend to really like making friends"

"Okay maybe I'll… give you a chance" Rachel grinned in a thin smile

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow, then" Kenny gave a joyous wave and sauntered into the road without looking

"Fuck! KENNY LOOK OUT!" Rachel screamed in horror as a truck mowed his skull into the road, roaring past.

"Oh my god!" Kyle ran out the school, "They killed Kenny!"

Rachel and Kyle glanced at one another and at the sorry corpse on the road.

"You bastard!" a very distant voice coming from the other side of town hollered in reply. Rachel blinked at this and giggled stupidly at this.

Kyle waved a hand disimissively and turned down the pavement, right up to a kid in an orange parka, the same guy who was run over.

"wait- didn't you ju-" Rachel did a double take and looked at Kenny and back again, where a corpse no longer was.

"What?" Kenny stared at her

"You-" Rachel shook her head, "Never mind"

"Right" Kenny lifted an eyebrow. He wasn't planning on explaining the immortal thing to her anyway, "Nice that you care about me after all"

Rachel blinked. "I saw you get run over"

"It tends to happen like that" Kenny shrugged

"Why?" Rachel asked

"Long story. You wouldn't believe it anyway" Kenny shrugged


	4. Chapter 4

Rachel sat on the roof of her house unsure what to make of today and an encounter involving nerd glasses. She got up and made for the edge of the rood to jump down and leap into her open bedroom window. She slid down so she was hanging by her fingers from the roof ledge. Rachel sighed in irritation. Her mother must have shut the bedroom window. Rachel pondered a way out. Maybe she could just jump down and go in the front door. Her hands were growing tired, she rolled her eyes as her atrociously poor hand hold and let go, only to have a set of purple gloves pull her right back up onto the roof.

"I could have done that myself" Rachel muttered on autopilot and did a double take as she saw who it was.

"Hey" Mysterion waved, "are you alright?"

"Fine" Rachel grinned sheepishly, "Thank you… again. Are you following me?"

"I'm a superhero, I have eyes everywhere" Mysterion laughed

"Oh. Of course" Rachel felt even more sheepish, "That's good, I guess"

"How are you, Rachel?" Mysterion asked

"Good" Rachel shrugged, "Uh, are you ever going to tell me who you are?"

"Mysterion" Mysterion folded his arms

"No, I mean, who you are by day or something like that" Rachel waved a hand, "like in those superhero stories"

"I'm nocturnal" Mysterion replied

"But you're tanned" Rachel pointed out, looking as if she was on to something

"I don't always sleep in the day" Mysterion covered up, looking sheepish

"Right" Rachel rolled her eyes, unable to hide a laugh

"Anyhow, I thought I would ask what you're doing on a roof" he questioned

"Well, I'm not contemplating anything like jumping from the roof if you're wondering that" Rachel said, "I'm not an emo or suicidal"

"I could tell. You looked annoyed about letting go of the ledge" Mysterion said

"Mum shut me out by mistake. I got onto the roof from my bedroom window so I was thinking of dropping off and suffering a sprained ankle or an injury of some minor form" Rachel shrugged

"You're on a roof and its fucking _freezing_ out here" Mysterion shivered, "and dangerous too, I might add"

"Well, lets just say that my family wants a family of four. Not three" Rachel shrugged. "And I don't like the sound it creates"

Mysterion stifled laughter at this, several octaves above his disguised voice, W- what?- oh I can h- eh why don't we move somewhere else?"

"Like where?" Rachel stood, "I mean, it's not like you don't have crime to fight or something"

"Literally over the road" Mysterion pointed to a park bench lit up by a lone streetlight, "It's safer there"

"Why do you want to get off the roof so bad?" Rachel lifted an eyebrow, "Are you afraid of heights?" Rachel asked, standing up. Expecting to see his form below, she stared, unsure where he had gone. Mysterion had vanished.

"Then come back on the roof!" Rachel screamed at the night

She sighed in annoyance and walked to the other side of the roof and dangled from the ledge like before. She booted the window inwards and leapt inside and tumbled into a cot without its blankets, mattress and toys. Groaning in utter agony from her clumsy fall, she clumsily slid out the cot and closed the window. She hated this room. It reminded her of the fact that she was going to loose the attention of her parents and this room would be filled with cheesy congratulatory cards and a scrawny puffy bright pink thing inside a white blanket straddled inside the cot. Muttering, she went to her own bedroom and fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Rachel awoke with about five different voices screaming in her head. One was shouting at her to get started on the science project, another voice was ranting about how she missed the bus home yesterday and didn't trust public transport anymore, the third voice was having a debate about eating beef stroganoff from last night's dinner or porridge for breakfast. The last voice, the loudest voice of all was clamoring about something that Rachel would have found unnerving on the first day at the school…. Something assured her that perhaps… Kenny wasn't so bad and horrible after all. She didn't even know the guy so she didn't have the right to pass him off so harshly. A sixth voice managed to squeeze itself on top of the one ranting about traffic and blurted a worrisome remark about why the hell underpants man was hanging around her so much. It wasn't like he was attacking her or anything and she felt like she didn't have to worry about crazy purple boys _chatting_ to her and stopping a sprained ankle. After Rachel got dressed she went downstairs and rifled the pantry for food and shrugged breakfast off, it was school time anyway. She subconsciously, she munched on a handful of Mentos from her bag as she wandered to the bus stop, only to freeze.

"Fuck, I ate the experiment" Rachel swore, staring at her half empty tube

"At least you're not Cartman" Kenny smiled before her, laughing, "he would've taken the cola too"

"We'll get more. Everyone sells Mentos" Kyle reassured her, walking over

"Hey you want to hear something disgusting?" Kenny asked, a twinkle in his eyes warning the duo that he was about to gross them out, "You stick the coka can in your pants and insert Mentos. You're in for a hell of a prank… on.. Yourself"

"Duh" Rachel snorted with laughter at Kenny's realization. He had just self decrepitated himself with his own thought idea.

"Gross, dude" Kyle cringed

"Not as bad as having Mephesto walk up to you and replace your chipolata with a banana!" Rachel teased Kyle who frowned more

"What the fuck did you even take this morning?" Kyle stared at Rachel

"Leave her, I like her humor" Kenny shrugged, grinning at Rachel's giggles that eventually caused the two boys to erupt with laughter.

"Who calls their wiener a chipolata?" Kyle asked, "It makes sense to call it a-"

"Banana!" Kenny howled with laughter

"But that would just mean you have a slightly curved wiener" Kenny laughed

"God you're such boys" Bebe huffed as she and Wendy sauntered over

"What's so bad about that!?" Wendy asked as she crossed her arms, "Not all boys are _bad_, take Stan for instance"

Kenny looked as if he did a double take but he disguised it as a simple foot shuffle. Kenny was amazed that the same girl who said that all guys were pants hungry grovelers had said just that.

"You dumped him once you found out about his alcohol addiction" Kyle deadpanned, "He's still my best friend"

"Well, I'm over that now, I tried to change him and-" she started

"You can't change people" Rachel cut in, "Obviously"

"Well, you shouldn't be hanging around… well, him" Bebe shot Kenny a glare

"What I do?" Kenny stared back

"A number of very impromptu things" Bebe pouted

"Like what?" Kenny mumbled

"Well-" Bebe started

Kyle stepped forwards, annoyed, "Don't you pick on my best friend!"

"Yeah!" Rachel shouted and covered her mouth and blinked. Her brain and her mouth had two very different opinions. Well, 3% of her brain against the rest of it and her mouth.

"God you re SUCH a tomb boy!" Wendy huffed and left

"That ain't so bad, sweet tits" Kenny winked, "Because she's got a brain much bigger than the two of your bra sizes put together!'"

The trio burst out laughing as Bebe and Wendy stalked off. Rachel, herself was blushing ferociously. Her mom had once told her that flattery was just a cheap way of getting the ladies. Flattery didn't mean anything but it sure as hell made an effect.


	6. Chapter 6

Rachel dumped an eclipse peppermint into the cola can and wrote down a few numbers on a piece of paper as the can fizzed and spat the sugary goodness all over her face. Kyle clicked a stopwatch and added a number to the page and moved to another can of cola from the bag before them.

"There's this dude who visits me at night" Rachel broke the silence

"What?" Kyle looked confused as ever, "Stalkers?"

"He seems nice but he refuses to tell me his name. He's got this purple get up and everything" Rachel shrugged and sipped a cola can that had gone flat from earlier experiments

"Huh. I remember dressing up as superhero with my friends" Kyle shrugged, "childish but it was pretty fun I must admit"

"I can imagine" Rachel smiled, "Maybe he just takes role play that seriously"

"I remember dressing up as a kite" Kyle laughed, "not so sure how a kite is badass"

"Well, they could cause rope burn" Rachel suggested, laughing

"Or suffocation" Kyle offered and closed his notebook

"Ugh, we're running out of coke" Rachel muttered as she rifled through her bag for more cola cans

"Hey, apparently there's a coke factory" Kyle piped up, "we can get more coke there"

"Sure, lets go tonight" Rachel smiled, not entirely sure why the next few words slammed out her mouth, "It's a date"

"Really?" Kyle stared, "I wouldn't think stealing from a coke factory would be a date"

"Well, you could easily interpret a date as in it's a day and time to go, a specific _date_" Rachel covered up

"Okay, whatever you say" Kyle chuckled at Rachel's red face

Xx

Rachel stared at the wooden cot before her. It was soon to hold a screaming red-faced baby that would hijack everyone's attention. How the hell was she jealous of a fucking baby? Let alone a sperm cell that didn't even exist ye—

"Rachel dear" Mother's voice called in it's usual flowering voice

"Yes Mum?" Rachel turned her head away from the cot, eyebrows raised

"Come downstairs for a minute please, dear" Mother asked

"Sure" Rachel walked downstairs and froze as her eyes zeroed in on a white pen about two inches long, "What… the hell is _that_? Why are you holding a pregnancy test!?"

"It's a pregnancy test, sweetheart" Mother smiled, "You're going to have a little sister or brother"

"You're…." Rachel stared at her "pregnant?"

"Yes" Mother giggled

"WHAT!?" Rachel spanned her hands around her as if she had just been told that elephants could speak French and English fluently.

"What do you mean What?" Mother blinked

"I mean why the hell are _you_ having another baby!" Rachel snapped, "Am _I_ not enough!?"

"Of course you're enough, darling" Mother reached and pulled Rachel beside her, "I just think it would be nice to have a big family. I've always wanted more than one child."

"But-" Rachel gawked, "But what about me? You're going to forget about me and you're going to be so absorbed in this baby of yours-"

"Now that's not true, darling" Mother stroked Rachel's head, ignoring the fact that Rachel was on the brink of screaming, "Love can be shared equally and evenly. You'll always be my daughter. Even if your father walks out on me and I find another man and have a baby with him-"

"Don't say that please" Rachel muttered

"-You will always be my daughter" Mother hugged her

"I guess so" Rachel mumbled, realizing how utterly screwed up her idea of siblings was. Maybe having a little sister or brother wouldn't be so bad after all. It wasn't like she was disposable anyway. Rachel wandered upstairs, feeling considerably better about herself and opened her clothes. Even though this was going to be a simple break in and cola can steal, she wanted to look pretty. She wasn't sure why but she felt she wanted to look her best. She reached for her elastic and pulled it out, watching the waves of brown curls fall in a shroud around her. Dumpling her glasses on the bed, she put on contact lenses and walked into the night.


	7. Chapter 7

After waiting on Rachel's roof, Kenny jumped down and knocked on the door. Changing out of his Mysterion costume and into his normal parka in the process.

"Hello, Mrs Charlie, do you by any chance know where Rachel's gone?" Kenny asked in his best tone of voice

"She said she had to get more coke from somewhere" Mother shrugged, "You know that _science experiment_ she's are doing? The kids these days are very creative with coming up with science experiment as a reason to leave the house"

"It's Saturday" Kenny blinked

"I know, I'm just saying that she's more than welcome to go out with her friends at night before curfew, I just don't understand why she used the _science experiment _excuse_. _I remember in my day, I would tell my parents I was going to work on a science experiment at a friend's house. I was actually dating my husband…"

"Mrs Charlie" Kenny blinked, "What are you talking about? They are ACTUALLY doing a Science experiment"

"Right" Mother laughed

"I'm in the group, Mrs Charlie" Kenny folded his arms

That stopped the mother's tinkling laughter in the tracks, "Oh… I'm sorry sweetheart. I wasn't supposed to… I… you should leave now. But don't go to the coke factory restaurant, please. She specifically told me to tell you that"

"Restaurant?" Kenny repeated. Rachel also lied to her. Saying the coke factory was a restaurant. Jesus she even looked confused like himself.

"Yes" Mother shut the door in his face

Did her mother just blow Rachel's cover? Did Rachel tell the mother not to tell Kenny where they were going? What was this about? He wandered off to the coke factory that he assumed they were either getting the coke from or on a date or something.

Xx

Kyle and Rachel stood inside a large grey room filled with pipes, vats, machines making _wrrrring_ noises, coke signs, posters and a coca cola vending machine with no cans inside.

"I don't think we managed to figure out how we'd get the coke" Rachel shrugged

"We could feel the canisters we have. From that vat over there" Kyle held up three two-liter coke bottles.

"Yeah, that might work" Rachel made for the vat with a flimsy ladder.

"I'll go in, you stay here" Kyle hoisted himself upwards onto the ladder and started scooping from the machine, filling bottles of coke. Kyle motioned for Rachel to throw more bottles his way and she did so. Kyle soon registered that Rachel was blinking and opening her mouth and shutting it, as if she was wanting to say something but couldn't.'

"Something the matter?" Kyle asked

"Kyle, I- there's a reason why I told Kenny not to come… tonight" Rachel chewed her lip, "He wasn't sick. I just… wanted to speak to you, where I knew we'd be alone"

"You do?" Kyle blinked, scooping coke

"Yeah" Rachel gulped air and watched him strain over the vat, "Don't fall in"

"YOU!" a voice hollered, causing Rachel to scream and jump, smacking a lever nearby and Kyle fell in the vat in fright.


	8. Chapter 8

After blacking out from the force of the coke-flavored tidal wave, she swam upwards, eyes stinging. Surfacing, Rachel for air as she clung onto a pillar, frothing coke streaming past her. She took in her surroundings and realized that the tidal wave of coke had somehow risen about thirty feet above ground.

"KYLE!" Rachel screamed, terrified. She looked around, frantic to find her friend in the turbulent currents.

"Rachel!" Kenny's voice shouted from above, "Take my hand!"

Rachel stared upwards at Kenny's orange figure against the grim grey railings. He was reaching over, straining.

"I have to find-" Rachel was cut off

"He'll manage!" Kenny waved a hand and lowered his hand, "we don't have much time! Take my hand, _sweetheart_"

Rachel didn't want to take his hand of help. Then that would mean she was admitting to defeat. And he knew about where they were which could mean that the mother clearly screwed over and blew the cover. Rachel let go of the pillar and let herself get thrust into the depths of the coke, sinking and tumbling, eventually slamming into a ginger haired figure whose leg was caught in a pipe. Frantically, she tugged and pulled at the limp form's leg. Finally freeing his leg, Rachel grabbed Kyle to herself and screamed a stream of bubbles as the currents tossed the two straight out a broken window that had a waterfall of coke gushing out of it, slamming the kids straight for the cement below. Rachel groaned in agony as she shivered in the cold, hugging Kyle in shock. She slowly sat up, dizzy as ever and rolled Kyle over, eyes searching for signs of life. A voice in her mind quibbled that Kyle never noticed that she wasn't wearing glasses and her hair was down. Pushing that aside, she waved a hand to mentally speed up the process of her mind trying to remember what the recovery position looked like. The first try, he kept rolling on his face, the second try, he was on his back and it didn't look right. The third time was a success. Stage two was to either…. Rachel frowned at a sound. Resting her head on his chest, she could hear gurgling and feel his lungs rumble, as each breath was shallower than the last. An idea popped in her head that made her think at first _EEeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww! _At least he won't be awake to know it happened and she won't mention anything involving. Pinching his nose tight, she forced his lungs to rise by breathing in his mouth. Meanwhile, Kenny was watching from afar, stewing over what was going on and looking just a slight bit envious of the scene playing out. After half a minute, he walked over once he saw Kyle showed signs of life, spluttering, heaving and vomiting as he rolled to his side.

"Oh thank god" Rachel gasped, wiping vomit from her own mouth, "I thought you were dead. Or half dead"

Kyle groaned and curled into a ball and coughed dryly as Rachel quietly rubbed his back, ignoring Kenny who stood before them.

"I know why you didn't tell me to come" Kenny spoke up

"That's not important right now" Rachel snapped, annoyed

"I don't understand why running off with-" Kenny began

"I didn't fucking run off with anyone! I just- I used the experiment as an excuse to simply get out of the house!" Rachel stared, "Your best friend nearly died and you don't seem to bloody care!"

"And you came here?" Kenny glared, "I know Kyle's fine now"

"I came here and I wanted to keep Kyle under the impression that we- why the hell do I have to explain this to you!" Rachel shouted, "I wanted time alone so I could-"

"Do you have feelings for him!?" Kenny asked

"Yes, I fucking do!" Rachel stood up, "and if you're not fucking okay with it, then you are one fucking atrocious friend to have!"

"That's not true!" Kenny snapped

"You're immature. You act so fucking jealous all the time around other girls. I've seen you!" Rachel spat, "You're disgusting and all you seem to really care about is being more than friends. I was perfectly FINE with the fact we were _friends_!"

"But I hate being friend-zoned" Kenny sighed

"They were right about you!" Rachel shouted, "Everyone was so right about who you are! I started to think maybe you weren't some terrifying scary bigot. Maybe they were just mean rumors."

"But now that you have feelings for Kyle, I'll won't be able to have you as a friend. It won't be the same" Kenny complained

"It wouldn't have mattered" Rachel snapped, "It would not have fucking mattered who my feelings were for. I would have still considered you a friend"

Kenny turned on his heel and left. Leaving Rachel to help Kyle up and stagger away from the cola factory.

"Uh" Kyle croaked, tired "I... heard.. everything"

"Yeah" Rachel nodded, "I didn't want it to come out like that"

"I know why you didn't want Kenny over" Kyle mumbled

"I know you do" Rachel shrugged as they staggered off, "I'm sorry it came out like that. Like a big reveal"


	9. Chapter 9

Rachel sat with Kyle who was on her couch at home. Sheila had let Kyle stay home to get over the trauma of what happened at the factory. Today they had gone to school to receive the marks for their science project. The night at the factory was supposed to be when Rachel would tell Kyle how she felt. On the couch, Kyle had Rachel tightly wrapped in a hug, hands flat on her back kissing her delightfully when she pulled away in surprise. Rachel shook her head. She didn't want to remember any of it, especially the sight of Kyle's broken and limp form on the wet cement. Even though Kyle was alive and well, the image in her mind still frightened her.

"Are you alright?" Kyle looked at her pale face, taking her hands

"Yeah… I'm fine. I just keep reliving the moments where I thought you were gone for good" Rachel shook a little, "I'm fine now. I hardly think of it now days"

"Thank you for saving me" Kyle glanced at her, "You have no idea how grateful I am… especially my mom"

"I care about you, I wouldn't let you die" Rachel smiled as he took her hand in his

"Despite the panic and the fact I was unresponsive" Kyle laughed, "You're a pretty good kisser"

Rachel howled with laughter "Then you must have been pretty whacked out to consider _that_ as actually _kissing_"

"I was" Kyle admitted and laughed, he looked and his watch and got up, "My curfew's nearly up. I should leave"

"I'll walk you out" Rachel walked him to the door where she took ahold of his hand, "I love you"

"I love you, too" Kyle squeezed her hand and left. Rachel watched him walk away, stopping herself from saying something along the lines of _Don't die on the way home_ ever since that night, she couldn't help but remember and visualize the still figure floating lifeless in the brown sugary cola that brought life to young children everywhere. She never touched Coke ever again because of it. A symbol of joy and childhood was forever ruined for her. She turned to go to her room to sleep. Ever since that night at the factory, Rachel noted that Mysterion had stopped visiting all together. It had been several weeks ever since the incident and Kenny had stopped speaking to the duo. She was about to drift off to sleep when a thud sounded on her window. Getting up, she opened the window and looked outside. A lone purple figure stood in the snow, shivering.

"Can we talk?" Mysterion asked

"You know, waking people up in the night is bad social form" Rachel said, "I know you've helped me in small situations once or twice but that doesn't- I just don't feel like talking to people that hide themselves and you're a prime example. I have no idea who you are and we hardly know each other. So can you please leave me alone?"

"It's Kenny" Mysterion yanked his hood off

Rachel rolled her eyes, "There are so many things about you I don't know"

"I pretended to be Mysterion so I could know you as a better person. As someone without-" Kenny sighed, "Without all the rumors that everyone told you. I could start fresh"

"Well, you could have at least tried to be yourself and ignored the rumors rather than pretending to be a whole other person!"

"I'm sorry about all of this" Kenny sighed, "I'm sorry about who I am. I really did try to change… um. If you didn't know who I was, would've you given me a chance?"

"No!" Rachel snapped, "I would have thought you were too secretive and weird to only hang out at night and… just No. It's a weird way to make friends"

"Okay, I'm sorry" Kenny looked up, "I'm sorry about how I acted that night. I... I've just never had a friend that was a _girl_..."

"You refused to help your best friend" Rachel said quietly, "You wanted to help me at first but after you found that I was into Kyle you thought I wasn't a valid friend anymore"

"I take it all back!" Kenny clasped his hands as if in plea, "I'm sorry! All the jealousy and the hatred was childish and immature"

"Of course it was childish!" Kyle shouted as he walked out from his house over the road, apparently he had been listening to everything. Rachel took this as a cue to go outside and stand with them.

"I'm sorry, guys" Kenny sighed, "I didn't take the friend zone thing lightly at all"

"It's okay dude" Kyle yawned, "You were pretty rude to us at the factory"

"Well, I've changed for the better" Kenny smiled, "Just wait and see"

**the end**


End file.
